love conquers all

Moffat more or less told us, through the Culverton storyline in TLD, what’s going to happen, didn’t he?

Culverton John will confess (his love for Sherlock). 

It will probably happen by Sherlock’s bedside in hospital (probably while Sherlock is in a coma).

The viewers, the audience of the show, will claim that John’s confession doesn’t count (=is “inadmissible”).

But, in the end, it won’t matter where and when John made that first confession because afterwards he will keep confessing over and over again.

The “inadmissible” part is particularly interesting!

(x)

Since Culverton in TLD made his ‘confession’ by Sherlock’s bedside, doesn’t that mean that John might make his (love) confession sitting by Sherlock’s bedside, too? Possibly while Sherlock is unconscious?

And afterwards everyone (the audience of this show) will treat this confession like it didn’t count (=was inadmissible). 

The audience, and ESPECIALLY those fans who weren’t too keen on a gay reading of the show to begin with, will claim that, “John didn’t mean it like that. It’s just bro-love. He just said, ‘I love you,’ because Sherlock was comatose and John felt desperate and overwhelmed by what was going on. There’s nothing gay about it. It doesn’t count as an actual love confession. This ‘love’ is just a bromance. This confession is ‘inadmissible’.” 

It’s possible that even Sherlock himself, who somehow will have heard that ‘confession’ despite being in a coma, that even Sherlock will keep telling himself that John’s confession ‘doesn’t count’ (=is inadmissible). Not for long, though…:)

But Moffat clearly told us that all of that noise and chatter by the usual suspects won’t matter. What will count is that, in the end, John won’t be able to stop himself from confessing over and over again.

That’s a nice explanation for Moffat’s choice of the word (‘inadmissible’) here, right?

This way we would, maybe, FIRST get a (subtle, half-hidden) love confession in one episode. And then get the real deal in a later episode. And in between those two, millions of viewers (including every stupid journalist ever) would explode and fall all over themselves trying to prove that that first confession was totally ‘inadmissible’, ie, didn’t point to John being in love. And then…baaam…the second one would happen.

Well, a guy can wish, can’t he?

Your prediction about the audience and the ’inadmissible’ confession makes a lot of sense to me, and I quite agree that’s probably what’s going to happen: whatever love confession John might make to his comatose friend, it’s going to stir up debate as to whether it can be interpreted as ‘gay’ or ’bro’. Just for the record, here’s the quote from the end of TLD (transcript by Ariane deVere, although without descriptions), talking about Culverton’s ’confession’:

SHERLOCK: Oh, by the way, the recordings will probably be inadmissible. JOHN: Sorry, what? SHERLOCK: Well, technically, it’s entrapment so it might get thrown out as evidence. Not that that matters; apparently he can’t stop confessing. JOHN: That’s good. SHERLOCK: Yeah.

@tjlcisthenewsexy I love your interpretation of the entrapment point! :)) And yes @sagestreet; I agree that at some point in S5 there will most probably come a lot of undeniable confessions from John, and we will all be rejoicing :). 

But until the moment we’ll be able to witness this, the problem is also, as I see it, that Culverton doesn’t actually confess to any particular murder or other crime in TLD, he just says that “killing human beings” makes him “incredibly happy” and that he likes to “make people into things” so he can own them. Then he talks about murder as “a difficult addiction to manage”. But this is not precise enough, is it? The only particular crime we have evidence of is his physical murder attempt on Sherlock. 

“[…]  Culverton doesn’t actually confess to any particular murder or other crime in TLD, he just says that “killing human beings” makes him “incredibly happy””

That’s a very, very important point you’re making there, I think.

We probably all agree by now that the metaphor Mofftiss have been employing over and over again is: MURDER = FALLING IN LOVE, right?

So, what Culverton (=John!mirror) gives us here is a deeply interesting insight into John’s personality. 

Granted there are people who experience no trouble whatsoever in being single for a prolonged period of time. Some people really don’t mind living without romantic love for years or even decades. But John most definitely isn’t one of them. John needs love. John needs to be in love. He needs it like the air that he breathes.

What’s particularly interesting is the fact that this trait of John’s, in and of itself, has nothing to do with Sherlock specifically.

As you’ve observed quite correctly in your comment, Culverton doesn’t even tell us that it’s Sherlock he wants to ‘kill’ (=love) specifically. 

My guess is that this is because, Sherlock or no Sherlock, John has always been this way. That’s who John is. John needs to be in love. And originally this had nothing to do with Sherlock. It’s a character trait of John’s. John needs to be in love to be happy. It’s a deeply ingrained part of John’s nature. It’s his personality. He’s always been like this.

(Well…Obviously, once John meets Sherlock, this need to love is directed full force at Sherlock. He finds in Sherlock, the perfect receptacle for this love of which he has always had a lot to share.)

But it’s not Sherlock who has caused John to be like this. John has always felt the need to have love in his life. If he hadn’t met Sherlock, he would have kept endlessly falling in and out of love with men and women alike. It’s just that with Sherlock he has finally found THE one person.

I really think that’s what Culverton’s (John’s) confession means. That’s why Culverton doesn’t tell us that he needs to ‘kill’ Sherlock specifically. John’s nature is to love people. Not all people, obviously. But to be in a relationship with someone is what John needs to be happy. This is who he is. Sherlock or no Sherlock. That’s what he’s always been like.

Or to be more precise, it’s what Sherlock has worked out John is like (!). Because a lot of us (myself included – and you have written some of the most brilliant meta on the subject –) don’t believe anything in s4 is ‘real’. It’s all Sherlock’s dream/coma/imaginings/hallucinations or whatever. In short, it’s all Sherlock’s EMP.

So, in other words: This isn’t John speaking. It’s Sherlock working out what John’s confession might be all about: John is confessing that he always needed love and still needs it. He has always been a ‘serial killer’ (ie, a serial monogamist). That’s what John’s nature is like…is what Sherlock is telling himself (!) in his own mind here.

But why doesn’t Culverton tell us he wants to kill Sherlock specifically?

As you rightly observed, “[…] But not even then does he tell Sherlock that he wants to kill him[…]”

Because it’s all in Sherlock’s mind!

It shows us how deeply repressed Sherlock actually is. He can’t bring himself to even just think, “John actually really wants me.” Not even through the thick veil of a murder=love metaphor. Not even while employing a Culverton=John mirror. 

In Sherlock’s mind, Culverton never says, “I want to kill you,” because Sherlock can’t bring himself to think, “John wants me.”

What Sherlock does instead is all the more heart-breaking: He tells Culverton (aka John) what HE (Sherlock!) wants! 

He tells Culverton (=John) that he wants Culverton (=John) to kill (=love) him. That’s the only thing Sherlock dares to think at this point. “John, I want you to love me.” But he doesn’t dare to think it the other way around. (“John wants me.”) Or at least he doesn’t spell it out yet.

Oh, boy, the amount of things those two don’t dare to say to each other or even just think about each other…Just wow!

In your other comment, you stated that ‘Did you miss me?’ is less compromising than ‘I love you.’ While that is true on some level. I sometimes wonder if maybe ‘Did you miss me?’ isn’t even ‘worse’ in a lot of ways.

I mean, I can totally see myself say, “I love you, man,” to a buddy of mine without it being romantic in any way. Well, it depends on the tone, I suppose. But you can totally say that in a “Bro, I love ya,” kinda way. (Not meaning to imply that Sherlock and John’s confession would be that kind of thing, obviously.)

guys

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